"Even in times of peace, one is not spared from the cruelty of man.”

Every time I play a game I always ask myself if this game is the one that will wow and impress me. And most of the time I'm usually left with good, great, all right, meh and other regular platitudes to describe my experience after the end of a game. Chained Echoes is none of that. The game strives to become something bold and new all while standing tall on its own and merely showing what it has to offer. Matthias Linda who created the game and Eddie Marianukroh who composed the soundtrack have remarkably impressed me to a degree I haven’t seen since I played Omori. So yes this is one hell of a bar they raised.

The game doesn’t boast to wear its proud laurels touting the best of the best jrpgs of the past. Instead, the game simply describes itself as a “16-bit SNES style RPG set in a fantasy world where you follow a group of heroes traveling around the continent of Valandis to bring an end to the war between its three kingdoms.”

Not the most exciting catch to pull every consumer, but I feel it gets the job done. Because right off the bat, it is not saying they’re going to be the next classic since the time of Chrono Trigger or whatever RPG that is simply the best. Nor are they comparing their game to the JRPGs of old like other games on Steam. The devs are merely detailing what their game is going to be about. And that’s it. The game will show what it has to offer through the gameplay, story, music, characters, and more. And so the question remains. Does the game deliver? And is there a lot of content?

Chained Echoes does have a lot to offer. You have mecha gameplay. A big colorful cast of party members. The gorgeous visual style and soundtrack are worth listening to. An engrossing story, with a plot that is grounded and paced well. And scenes that left me shocked and unpredictable throughout. All of these hit me in such a way, I couldn’t stop myself from seeing one more scene, one more battle, and one more secret to find. I lost myself in the game and was chained, not willing to let me go.

Before I start, I need to preface this with some critique of the game. While excellent and remarkable in its own right, I feel the game could’ve used a bit more scenes to flesh out the characters. Not bad mind you. About three moments in the game, I feel could’ve transitioned better. Possibly, been padded a bit more to allow players to digest what happened from moment to moment between party members. It wasn’t jarring or abrupt. I just felt some scenes needed a bit more oomph in a way to let players digest a bit more context and exposition. Although, I find myself battling this point because if there is too much or too little it could break the pacing or remove the player from being immersive in the game. I equate this to deleted scenes in movies. While not strictly necessary, some additional scenes could've explained or refocused the scene differently.

Secondly, several villains except for some since they’re brilliant. Could’ve been fleshed out a bit more to make them more compelling. I noticed in their dialogue they would be in their role to be evil and explain motives and more etc. Except, during their final moments. Their character shifts in a way that is acceptable and decent, but I feel can be perceived as a tad abrupt. Not horrendous or bad. But my mind couldn’t help but consider alternatives if the scenes were rewritten or tweaked a bit. It's not a knock on the character as a whole since they performed as expected and in some cases unexpectedly, but the dialogue felt off and forced in a way. So more scenes to flesh them out really.

That’s all I can name off the top of my head.

Now let's dig into the real good stuff.

The story, caught me off-guard because I expected a standard JRPG trope affair full of references non-stop along the lines of Ready Player One. Instead, I got something the likes of Xenogears except much more grounded and taking me on a roller coaster ride. As if Chrono Trigger devs blessed the team to perfect the formula of introducing scenes to intrigue players, quick meaningful battles, excellent usage, and placement of antagonists scenes with well-placed humor sprinkled here and there that is fun and not forced.

The gameplay is fun and fresh and not all that complicated. Get into overdrive and stay there. Don’t overheat. And as I continued to gather more party members and when the game introduced mech gameplay, oh boy my grin was ear to ear. Plenty of bosses and unique enemies to fight, along with encountering a host of different creatures and beasts and humanoids here. Whereas, other games would usually change the color of an enemy and call it a day. None of that lazy stuff is in Chained Echoes. Each enemy fits their environment. Hell, there is a reward board ala FF12 style. So you can complete tasks while out on the field and get rewarded for doing so. None of the simple fetch quest and kill ‘x’ creatures stuff here. You have sidequests, buried treasure, hidden caves, unique requirements to finish off a group of enemies, defeating unique monsters, and more. Heck, the game doesn’t even have a level system so you don’t need to grind!

The game felt balanced since there are options to manage skills and upgrade them. And options to reduce enemy health and aggressiveness if you so desire. Overall, I didn’t feel tired from the combat system since the whole package of the game from reward boards, mecha gameplay, and unique enemies and bosses made the experience all the more satisfying to complete.

Visually the game is stunning and the art style works to its favor, a great deal. I was constantly impressed not seeing copy-paste areas and looking for templates where Mathias cut corners and I could not find one! Every environment is unique with a gimmick to earn your way out through small puzzles or clever switches and hidden areas to traverse. And these puzzles are implemented in such a way I wasn't truly frustrated. A nice change of pace and a breather from the regular travel and battle. Enemy design is terrifying and cute in some ways. The scenes throughout the game felt natural with animations not too sudden or too rigid. Smooth is key here and I can’t for the life of me recall a bad scene or egregious bugs.

On the soundtrack, I am just in awe of Eddie's work. It’s not the greatest thing since Mitsuda or Okabe. But holy hell does Eddie demonstrate MAXIMUM EFFORT here. I felt so much passion and emotion in Eddie’s soundtrack. Field themes that left me breathless and where all I wanted was to listen to the track on a loop. Catchy battle themes I never got tired of listening to these. Feeling pumped and invigorated to hear this again and again. And appropriate themes in cutscenes leave me shifting my mood to what is currently happening in the game. Serious scene. Cue slow track. Sad scene. Cue sad track. Funny moment. Cue funny track, and so on. And these cases were placed with such care I couldn’t predict what was coming next. Yet, transitioned well to match what is shown on the screen. Brilliant synergy to know what scene and track to use and display that to the player enhances their experience. Excuse me as I go back to listening to Iron Scraps for Breakfast and Flower Fields of Perpetua and so much more on repeat.

It is this pacing I want to talk about next. There is a great deal of freedom given to the player in the middle of the game that doesn’t ruin the pacing of the game at all. I feel Mathias managed to balance player freedom with nudges here and there on the main plot to give you just enough to be satisfied with your optional content and then focus back on the real task at hand. And this is exemplified again and again when I was played like a damn fiddle. Since I wasn’t exposed to constant exposition or repeated reminders of what to do, nor were there scenes where villains regurgitated lines they said previously. Character development was the answer here. Nothing too crazy and none too ambiguous or slow to manifest. Instead, used in such a way I found myself nodding. The cast struggles and learns, fails, succeeds, tries to learn to be better, fails again, and yet keeps trying is admirable and moving. It's not exactly what happens in the game, but just a rough estimate. Other elements can be injected of course like other cast members' motivations, feelings, history, and current relationships can tip the scales quite a bit to create drama or more. Keeping you the player invested in what happens next.

And this is what Chained Echoes demonstrates to an excellent degree. The pacing coupled with character development balanced it with optional content.

Before I forget, I have to give praise to the characters. Since, I doubted every single one of them and by the end of the game came away very impressed by how far each has come. Some more so than others, but for the most part, I felt attached to my characters. I hated one character quite a bit for a good chunk of the game. And yet by the end after seeing said character's struggles and scenes I couldn’t help but begrudgingly admit how hard they suffered and what they had to go through to see what becomes of them in the end. And this extends to my other party members who more or less undergo remarkable development throughout. In a manner, I found realistic without taking my suspension of disbelief to a whirlpool and flushing it down the ocean. There is a heartwarming amount of care Mathias has done to create characters with feelings that are so human and in the opposite spectrum create characters, so twisted and disgusting I can’t help but feel conniptions towards them.

Still what remains is a loveable cast of quirky characters and antagonists who are more than a simple villain here and there. A riveting story the likes I haven’t seen since Chrono Trigger and Xenogears and other wonderful JRPGs of old. Very fun and satisfying gameplay loop taking me over 40+ hours to 100% the game without being tired. Visuals aesthetically pleasing with no copy-paste artwork and unique enemies/characters/environments everywhere. The soundtrack is very satisfying to listen to, taking my breath away every time I listen to the main theme and more. Pacing and character development are balanced and excelled with nothing coming to my mind that felt forced or unnatural. And while it could’ve been improved on some villains and moment-to-moment scenes, I can forgive that since the game as a whole more than makes up for those very minor critiques.

Chained Echoes isn’t trying to become good nor does it profess to become one of the greats as classic well regarded JRPGs have done in the past of which we hold them fondly as favorites and more. Chained Echoes is one man’s vision with the help of a fantastic composer to bring to life an indie RPG with a story they want others to experience.

It’s a humbling, heartwarming game in homage to old JRPGs of the past. With enough content to stand tall with the greats. If you love JRPGs, Indie RPGs, or have a desire for a starter in the genre. And wish to be wowed like I did, to a point where you hold your favorite games close to your heart. Perhaps Chained Echoes will be that one game to impress you just as it had with me.

Pros:
- Inspired by classic JRPGs, Chained Echoes is a fairly dense game that stands out as a well executed and highly memorable RPG in its own right. Given the amount of content this has and how much effort it must have taken to make, it’s genuinely mind-blowing that it’s mostly done by a single person
- Combat is interesting in that it focuses on an “Overdrive” bar, where you need to manage skills used to balance how effective your attacks are. You also regain all your HP/TP after a fight, which encourages you to always use all your moves since enemies are pretty aggressive to compensate
- I liked that instead of standard leveling, you don’t have XP to gather when fighting normal enemies. You get shards that are used to unlock new skills but only after beating bosses, which means there’s little need to grind in this
- For the most part the early hours are linear, but once you reach Act 2 it opens up in a really cool way. Getting access to Sky Armors as a faster way to travel around (which made revisiting areas more enjoyable), unlocking meaningful side quests, a bigger party, etc
- Great music and pixel artwork!

Cons:
- While the difficulty is manageable with buffs/debuffs, I did feel the balancing was kinda off. On default there were many times where I hit a wall for standard enemies who hit really hard yet I had an easier time with the boss that followed. On the other hand, lowering settings makes it too easy imo, especially as you get stronger abilities
- Crystals felt kinda pointless as a system. Most of the time you can’t combine the ones you actually want, and the ones you did have felt like they made a negligible difference at best
- Feel there’s too many party members to manage by the end, though most are useful (Mikah for instance)
- The lack of a glossary for a world this fleshed out seems like an odd oversight. There is a bestiary though
- Varied expressions for portraits would’ve been appreciated, but that’s a minor gripe
- Kept rearranging my party formation every so often

“Surrounded by walls, all I knew was the sky above me and the mud beneath my feet.”

Chained echoes is an ambitious indie jrpg inspired by some of the stable classics of the snes and psx era. Stated by Matthias Lind(the only sole developer for the game for the most part) the main influences being Xenogears, Suikoden II, Terranigma, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy VI. A setting that mixes fantasy with steampunk and sci-fi; envision; Mechs meet magic. All of this sounded fantastic to me leading up to release that I was almost worried it was too good to be true, despite everything I seen about the game disputing otherwise. Well after spending 60 hours to reach full completion of the game I can ecstatically confirm it is indeed as magical as it sounds.

The gameplay chained echoes has to offer is unique in a lot of ways; the game is simply brimming with all types of mechanics that tie into exploration, tactical depth, party formation, and even the way you purchase and sell. Focusing first on the character customization chained echoes ditches the traditional level system and replaces it with skill upgrading and class oriented investments. Each character is given a unique role in which they fill in an unnamed set class that determine the action skills and passive skills they can obtain throughout the game. Rather than gaining EXP from a battle you instead gain SP and for boss fights you additionally gain a grimore shard. Skills slowly gain SP from using them in battle but you eventually rack up stored points so you can speed up the process for some of the skills you don’t use as much. Grimoire shards are used to unlock more skills as well as leveling up your stats. Additionally to the skills only each character can learn, you can find class emblems which not only give a nice stat boost, but also allow anyone who has it equipped to eventually learn that skill when the moves are maxed. Due to this thought out well polished system there is really no grinding at all as you can explore semi freely at the start and as act 2 opens you can go wherever you want granted you have the ability and skill to do so. Battles are split between two types: on foot and sky armors. On foot you’re presented with a meter called the overdrive system. It is color coded between orange(regular reciprocated damage on both ends), green(taken less damage and deal more), and red (receives more damage and deal less). Every action by the player, and by the enemies, influences the bar. A skill type pop up when reaching green will show up that will allow you to lower the bar as well as expending your special move that charges after actions also lowers it. On foot you’re able to command a set of 4 characters while also having the ability to swap those in the back. This allows many different combinations since you can easily access 8 characters within a battle. Sky armor combat is a little different but I won’t be speaking on that and I’ll leave it as a surprise. HP and SP are automatically refreshed after every seamless overworld encounter which encourages the constant use of expending skills. The default difficulty for the game is honestly pretty perfect for the most part in my opinion. Throughout the entire game I found myself trying to strategize and use any tactical means necessary especially in boss fights. If you find the game too challenging or easy there is a custom difficulty option available from the start that can raise or lower certain things like the overdrive bar. The exploration between each area throughout the world map is fantastic since there’s a decent amount to do. Each area consistent of loose orbs that are categorized as loot. Pickups which are used only for selling which will net you some things such as materials for upgrading gear and gear itself. Additionally there’s buried treasure, and hidden areas as well. There’s a lot more to exploring and other mechanics than this such as unique monsters that appear under conditions but I’ll leave the rest as something the player themselves can experience.

The backtracking tunes attached to this adventure are really something special. You can clearly hear the direction they were envisioning from the description prior to the games release and they really nailed it. Marianukroh was able to capture that magical nostalgia those legendary osts that the golden era of jrpgs had we all hold dear. While the game itself doesn’t have a huge variation of battle tracks there’s tons of area themes and event tracks. Quality over quantity was definitely the goal and man is it quality. It’s hard to pick my favorite since I genuinely enjoyed every single track this game presented. To list some; the Flower Fields of Perpetua is definitely one up there, as well as one of the more serious toned boss themes “Death Approaches”, and I cannot leave out the extremely suspensive “Down the Corridor of Rustling Swords” that is played between some transitions. I highly recommend if you’re unsure about the game you at least check out some of the music, it’s glorious.

Chained echoes is at glance a product made by a lad who just loves jrpgs with no shame wearing their influence on their sleeve. There’s countless Easter eggs, references, and callbacks throughout this 30-40 hour jrpg. Some might say the more classics listed above you’ve played, the greater your experience it’ll be, and I’d have to agree. Your journey takes place on the continent of Valandis, a land that has suffered from war spanning over around a century. Peace finally seems like a realistic outcome when something happens to completely shatter even the hope of the idea. Magic is pretty much a product of the past, with only a select few being able to use such sorcery. The main focus is on three kingdoms engaging in a gruesome conflict that holds no punches and sparing no respect for your emotions. The story is split between 4 arcs, the first being the longest narrative wise but things open up at the second where there’s loads of content that’ll have you busy. The writing for the game itself has a really nice contrast of being humorous and unexpectedly dark. Between enemy designs, witty dialogue & puns, as well as just some random event within a sidequest or title there will be some chuckles and feel good laughs. On the other side of the coin you have some pretty gruesome scenes that took a turn further than I thought they would. The game is rated M for a reason and I really wasn’t expecting it to push it to the point where the rating itself was definitely warranted.

There is really so much to offer, especially if the snes and psx era is something you hold special to you. Despite being a major throwback to those times, the game still feels widely ahead of it with its modern integration while still sticking to close that classic formula that blends together into what I’d consider a new classic. Even with obvious blood of its predecessors being out in the open exposed for the player to see, chained echoes manages to set its self apart from the rest and thrive as its own product. Expectations are always high when you see a piece of media that feels like it was really made for you. But the true magic is when the experience you were hoping for not only smashes those expectations, but you find yourself desperately trying to savor every moment you have because you know eventually you’ll have to say goodbye. I was dreading the moment the credits rolled and I’d have to look at the title screen in awe, but when I did I can’t say I wasn’t satisfied. Thank you Matthias Lind and Eddie Marianukroh you’ve truly created something special. One life is more than enough, as long as you live it to the fullest…

I soyjak pointed at like 10 different nods towards PSX/SNES JRPG's and even then I'm genuinely amazed at how well-crafted and unique it's world, story and characters are.

It's taken nothing but the best from it's inspirations and wears them on it's sleeve - and so it's an absolute blast to play through if you have any love for the genre whatsoever.

Gameplay's ridiculously good too, the Overdrive system keeps you on your toes and makes sure you don't just spam your strongest moves and I absolutely adore that it has a leveling system akin to Chrono Cross and gets rid of grinding entirely.

Just a really solid game on all fronts honestly, I absolutely loved it.

Chained Echoes is a pizza with too many toppings

First: I enjoyed Chained Echoes. It's an incredibly well-made, polished product considering the small team. The battle system feels good, the systems are balanced to prevent a need for level-grinding, and it didn't start to drag until I started pursuing the optional superboss stuff in the endgame. If this came out five years ago, I'd probably be singing its praises.

The dev has echoed a common sentiment with many of these retro-inspired indie games, which is that they want to recreate how those games are in your memories - how they made you feel - rather than how they actually were. If Chained Echoes succeeds in this, it's only partially, because it reminded me of other games constantly.

It's got a pretty standard JRPG narrative, but I have nothing inherently against that (unlike G4). The cast is full of the broad archetypes you might expect - hesitant hero, rebellious princess, self-interested thief - doing the sorts of things you might expect. Monsters roam the countryside, the empire controls dangerous magic, and the Pope's inquisitors make cryptic statements to each other about Gods' true intention. I think there's plenty of room for another retro-inspired indie JRPG out there, but there might be such a thing as too inspired.

Literally from the moment I hit New Game up until the middle of the end credits, I found myself thinking, "Oh, this is just that thing from that other thing." It reads almost like an extended X-meets-Y marketing copy: WHAT IF... the plot from Xenogears, the party dynamics from FFVI, the geopolitics of the Ivalice Alliance, the event scripting from Chrono Trigger, the Giant of Babil from FFIV, the Mana Fortress from Secret of Mana, the final act from FFVII, the introductory missions from Wild ARMs, the Yevon church from FFX, the home base from Skies of Arcadia, plus a special mixture of secret herbs and spices... were all in the same game?? Any individual identity Chained Echoes has is subsumed by slavish adherence to its inspirations.

To clarify, I definitely wouldn't say any of this is plagiarism or anything, and they usually aren't tiresome "hey, remember X?" direct references. It's that the whole thing feels like like every Squaresoft RPG from the 1990s was pureed in a blender and poured into a SNES-shaped mold, kitbashed into some kind of Franken-game.

Sometimes, I take my mother to a chain restaurant called "Pieology", which is basically an assembly-line style (Subway, Chipotle, etc) fast food place for pizza. She puts every single topping she likes on the same pizza without considering why you might use a specific ingredient. If you separately enjoy parmesan, ricotta, mozzarella, pineapple, corn, cherry tomatoes, basil, garlic, cilantro, artichokes, olives, peppers... putting all of them together should be even better, right?

But you get something underbaked. It tastes like everything and thus tastes like nothing in particular. It's still recognizably pizza, and you like the pizza genre as a whole... but "it's pizza!" feels like the only intention behind it.

For example, Chained Echoes has mecha, which stand out next to the usual JRPG airship fare in its otherwise Ivalicean setting. Xenogears has mecha. But Xenogears (for all its faults) also has a sci-fi plot about the intersection of man, god, and machine; mecha are a deliberate narrative device to buoy those themes. Why does Chained Echoes have mecha? Because mecha were in Xenogears.

It's that feeling, every 20 minutes, for 35 hours.

I genuinely believe there isn't anything inherently wrong with being an imitative work. Something like Signalis wears its aesthetic inspirations on its sleeve, but makes use of them for its own thematic goals. Crystal Project is transparently a FFV-style job system battle simulator that doesn't pretend to have any lofty narrative ambitions. And Chained Echoes is a perfectly good indie JRPG... but I wish it were a bit more than that.

Truly a magnificent, under-appreciated game that I don’t hear many speak of. If you are a hardcore jrpg fan that loves Xenogears, Suikoden, and the older final fantasy titles, this one is definitely up your alley! Great music, as well as wonderful characters to get attached to with very nice pixel art. With a unique take on the typical turn based battle system that adds to boosting your parties stats or making them worse is something I was not sure about at first when one of the first bosses was knocking my ass to next weekend.

I felt like this game posed a challenge in a way that taught me many things in regards to playing Jrpgs in a new light, especially for the support characters and learning new ways to overcome some of the much hard-hitting fights.
Fast paced battle system that makes it pretty fun to grind, but I gotta say one of my biggest cons of this game would be some of the enemy status effects. An enemy would use an evade buff for 5 turns and no matter how many times I attacked it would never hit, not even once. Most ones I played it would be a percentage, but this one felt like missing 100% of the time which was annoying.

Shout out to the great cast of characters especially Lenne, Amalia, and of course Egyl!
Spent some time with the extra content and got some really powerful sky armors for the endgame which pays off alot. So much extra content stuffed into this, they really killed it.

I had this one in my sights for quite some time, luckily @Detectivefail made me really want to jump into it even sooner. My only regret is not playing it during the off time I had and in the middle of my college courses which kept me from taking more time with it to focus more on it. Great gem on the gamepass to play!

Pros:
+ a modern, respectful take on classic RPGs
+ fitting artstyle and detailed pixel art
+ walking speed and traversal are wonderfully fast
+ grinding is unimportant and heavily discouraged
+ overworld combat is usually optional
+ energy refill after battles is a daring but effective design choice
+ common fights are always challenging and meaningful
+ boss fights are challenging and their designs are memorable
+ reward system serves as an integrated achievement log
+ status effect system is innovative (but the game does not keep track of them)
+ swapping characters mid-fight is quick and rewarding
+ unique enemies are smartly integrated and hinted at
+ buried treasure system is a fresh idea
+ Sky Armors are undeniably cool and well-animated
+ dungeon design is pretty good and chests are hidden well
+ some items and skills retain their German idiosynchrasies
+ overworld map is charming and quick to traverse
+ a lot of optional content to explore towards the end
+ plenty of accessability options
+ overdrive system is a genuine innovation to the genre...

Cons:
- ...but its implementation is severely lacking
- multiple enemy attacks extend overdrive level more than defending decreases it
- Sky Armor overdrive bar in particular is often completely unworkable
- Sky Armor proficiency system is unintuitive and never explained
- only four characters can wear Sky Armor and none have Ultra Moves
- combat is generally simple, early tactics can carry through the entire game
- fights cannot be avoided in dungeons and caves
- enemies' aggro radius is intransparent
- gem system is overly complex and unnecessarily frustrating
- Ultra Moves are creative but inconsequential
- leveling system is intransparent and skill increases are expensive but unsatisfying
- turn order often seems arbitrary: the same fight can start with various orders
- reviving characters does not add them to the turn order overview
- the music is mostly bland, the main combat theme is forgettable
- menus spoil late-stage aspects of the game: Sky Armor, playable characters, canning etc.
- frequent UI and interface issues (characters not in party still show up in the menu...)
- cutscenes are too long and too frequent
- the cast of characters, especially the villains, is far too large
- the writing is too expansive and dependent on plot twists
- the ending is frustrating and nonsensical
- some typos and awkward phrases mar the English translation

Magic Moments: Playing Sienna for the first time and realizing what a badass she is. Exploring the overworld and finding hidden spots, just like in the old days.

Blahgic Moments: Finding an secret character and realizing that he starts from zero and is mostly useless in combat. Getting the Sky Armor for the first time and not being able to use Ultra Moves. Using moves that you actually are not comfortable with, just to satisfy the overdrive bar.

Playtime: 55 hours on default (normal) difficulty. 100% completion. All rewards and best weapons acquired, all optional bosses beaten.


Verdict:
Every once in a while, you are bound to play a game that everyone seems to love but you are somewhat disappointed by. Chained Echoes is that game for me.

While creator Matthias Linda's reverence for the look and feel of old-school, 90s RPGs is felt at every turn and very much appreciated by this 90s kid, the overall package of Chained Echoes beyond its pitch-perfect presentation is lacking in more ways than one. The hardcore railroading, while designed to make grinding obsolete, severely limits the customization of each party member, leading to a combat system that rarely changes over the course of the game. The same tactics will carry you from the first few hours to the finale, and even if Sienna's animation in particular never gets old, the combat in general becomes boring very early on, and the Sky Armors add very little to the overall combat loop. The cast of characters is too large to have everyone experience a complete arc, especially when it comes to the giant cast of villains, and the ending to the story feels designed by a Disney committee instead of evolving naturally over the course of the game.

That being said, there is never a doubt that Chained Echoes is a real labor of love that offers plenty of secrets to discover, characters to gawk over, and cool bosses to fight, and that will be enough for many fans of the genre. But the glorious reception feels somewhat excessive, and the frequent moments of frustration and questionable design decisions should not be overlooked.

So play it with an open mind and see if it's for you, but a quick playthrough without exploring every nook and cranny of this world is certainly enough.

Every now and again a game will come and just completely surprise you. I had only heard about this game from some random people on Twitter, praising it as one of, if not the best JRPG indie game in existence. When you hear people say things like "it's inspired by X game" for an indie game, it usually is true to some extent, but never really captures that magic of what it's trying to emulate.

Not only is this game reminiscent of SNES JRPGs like FF6 and Chrono Trigger (it wears the latter inspiration on its sleeve), it also creates its own identity strong enough to rival those games and leave you wanting more from the world you get to experience.

I would say that my only gripe with it is that the crystal system is far too RNG to be worth farming a lot (I only had enough patience to perfectly spec out one character). The benefits are great (you don't even need crystals to beat the hardest boss in the game) but the time investment is too much.

That said, everything else, the combat, music, characters worldbuilding and story, were all top notch. I truly hope this game gets a sequel. It is truly one of the best JRPGs I have played in a very long time.

O melhor JRPG, que ironicamente, não foi feito por um japonês.

Não sou de escrever reviews, mas neste caso me senti na obrigação, pois apesar de ser um dos melhores jogos que joguei nos últimos anos, não teve o reconhecimento que merece.

Esse jogo é tudo de bom, desde a história que mistura diversos elementos sci-fi com a fantasia (semelhante ao Final Fantasy IX), até os personagens carismáticos e o combate super divertido. Ou seja, dá pra ver que a as pessoas responsáveis pelo projeto fizeram tudo com muito carinho e pensando sempre na satisfação do jogador. Inclusive, consertando diversos problemas frequentes nos JRPG's, pois em Chained Echoes:

➛ Não precisa ficar curando a equipe toda vez após um combate, pois você começa todas as batalhas automaticamente com a vida e a mana cheias, deixando todas as lutas à mercê de suas próprias habilidades e não no uso de items.

➛ Não há qualquer tipo de "𝑓𝑎𝑟𝑚" ou "𝑔𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔", pois os personagens evoluem através dos grimórios recebidos das batalhas importantes, e portanto, você não precisa ficar derrotando os inimigos repetidamente.

➛ A dificuldade é justa e balanceada, permitindo que você escape das batalhas com 100% de chance TODA VEZ, para que você sempre consiga reagrupar e tentar novamente.

Portanto, por favor joguem esse jogo incrível e vamos apoiar os desenvolvedores, principalmente Mathias Linda, para que façam cada vez mais projetos nesse estilo!

Here is a game clearly influenced by some of the greatest games ever made, but why didn't it completely land for me?

Chained Echoes is a great idea, and a great attempt at crafting a love letter to the golden age of JRPG's, reserrecting their magic to create a lengthy thirty plus hour journey in the 2020's. It does so many things "right" that a lot of titles that try to repackage that original magic don't; anywhere-saves, refreshed hp/mp out of each encounter, shared exp (kinda,) diverse locations, and most importantly a serious dedication to manifesting an interesting story.

Where it missed for me came in a few avenues, firstly with the difficulty of the game. World enemy and boss fight tuning is some of the most difficult work to do in creating a JRPG, as it's tough to balance the reward of using good mechanics to defeat a boss versus the actual ease of doing so. You want your players to work for it, but you don't want to frustrate them to no end with unfair moves and overwhelming status effects. To bypass hard encounters, many games (especially those in the JRPG golden age) gave players the option to grind their EXP to over/match level the fights. This meant that even players who weren't so gifted with comboing moves and pre-planning their opponent's attacks could get by. Unfortunately this also means that game-time was often inflated, as you'd have to spend countless hours grinding tough battles over and over for that sweet exp at the expense of your real life free time. Chained Echoes takes an interesting spin on boss fights, not allowing the player to grind at all to plan for them, with experience points that level up moves only coming after defeating said bosses... of which there is quite a few. This is good in theory, but when you're gated by a boss fight and have tried time and time again to get by to no avail, you feel helpless as there's no secondary option to level and power through. I played Final Fantasy 3's pixel remaster and was able to run back and forth through some rooms for an hour or so and was set for the whole game, Chained Echoes? Not so much. The nice thing here is that there are some difficulty sliders that change the way that enemies attack you without making the fights too easy.

The biggest issue is, well I don't even know if its fair to say: It's not Chrono Trigger. This is clearly a direct influence of CT (as well as Cross, FFVI, and some others,) and man when you're building off the blueprints of possibly the greatest game of all time, you have a tall task ahead of you. The dev did a phenomenal job in trying to match what made Trigger so good (a grandiose journey through time with the fate of the human timelines on the line,) but I spent the entire playthrough reminiscing on the magic that Square Enix' magnum opus put forth twenty-five plus years ago. I don't like to compare two games that aren't directly related but I kept thinking "This has been done better here" throughout the game's runtime. Level and dungeon design was a major mark I had against Chained Echoes in comparing it between its predecessors and influences, with this game having some remarkably boring and/or drab environments to prase through that dragged the game on in moments where the story urged it to be much faster. Puzzles like the one's involving the door and the seer were needless, same with the ones in the jungle, all they did was tarnish pacing in a place where the narrative begged it not to.

I've dragged on Chained Echoes quite a lot but its a great attempt at reviving the magic of the JRPG's of the 1990's. I enjoyed learning more about the lore of the game and the motives behind the multiple factions within Valandis. Lenne, Frederik, Gwayn, Kylian, Glenn, and Ba'thraz all had captivating motives toward solving the problems of the land and had me generally interested in seeing their plots through. The combat, while sometimes frustrating as mentioned above, was thought provoking enough for me to stay on my toes and make sure I was preparing for moves the right way. Music and art were well done too, albeit not necessarily memorable.

I'd recommend Chained Echoes to anyone who really enjoyed the JRPG's of the golden era and wants something to satiate their interest until Sea of Stars comes out.

"Took them 24 years but they finally managed to make a good Xeno game" - Kylian, probably.

Damn this game fucking SLAPS. I did not expect it to be this good, hearing it's main influence being Xeno I expected it to just be something I'd moderately enjoy, at worst drop after 15 hours and never think about again.

What I got is the best indie RPG I've ever played and something that's as good as some of the classics.

This game is basically everything I love about the genre, good dungeon design, complex battle system with some nice but light customization, while also emphasizing the uniqueness of each character, a story that's compelling but isn't just a goddamn movie (I'd say of my 31 hour playtime, maybe 5 of them were cutscenes.) Characters are lovely, I can definetly see the archetypes they were inspired from but the games writing is so charming and everything is paced so tightly that I never felt like it was a bore, which is a problem a lot of JRPG writing can run into.

The combat feels very much in it's own field, the overdrive system is so unique that I even made the mechanic tougher to invest more into it, It was that fun to manage the bar alongside trying to win fights as fast as possible. The gear combat I like slightly less then the human combat but unlike something like Xenogears, it's fun enough that it carries the handful of hours you spend in them.

Honestly it's hard to not gush about this game in every aspect but don't let the artstyle fool you, this is a game that wears it's influence on it's sleeve but feels very unique in it's own right. I would say it's primary influences are Xeno and Final Fantasy Ivalice (Tactics and XII, especially Tactics). so If you dig the storylines in those games, you'll love this one.

Surprisingly I'm not crazy for most of these stories (outside of FFT) so I was kinda shocked how much I liked this one.

This game is just crazy fucking fun and investing in every aspect and I can't recommend it enough. I know a lot of people on this site are willing to instantly dismiss indie games but there's definetly a great handful of them and this is sure as hell one of them.

TL;DR: Chained Echoes is everything I love about this stupid ass genre, Victor best boy.

shishishi

This one really does everything right, from story, world building, gameplay and combat. The music hits all the right notes, playing on nostalgia while still giving something fresh. The characters are genuine and their interactions help to fully flesh out the story.

Really cannot recommended this strongly enough for fans of the genre. Being able to play Chained Echoes and Sea of Stars in the same year has reignited not just my love of JRPGs but also kindled a true interest in indie games, something I historically have mostly ignored for the flashy big titles.

O equilíbrio perfeito em um RPG de turno: mecanicamente interessante e variado o suficiente para eu suportar 60 horas de jogo sem cansar.

A história começa parecendo fraquinha mas vai melhorando muito ao passar do jogo.

Dou muito valor pra RPG que não te obriga a grindar, como é bom!

Fino do fino!

Echoes of a golden age

It almost feels like bringing something back from the past decades of video game history is considered "retro" now a days and almost always seem derogatory in copying the originals but I never really understood the sentiment. The beauty of video games is that they always build off each other and present new ideas especially when it's a genre that has been found lacking in recent decades. Turn based JRPGs still exist of course but always in the form of more low budget titles from big publishers because they're really cheap to make now with no real passion put behind them other than a few projects here and there. I was always eyeing the scene for the independent scene to make a JRPG reminiscent of the SNES-PSX days and while there are some great turn based JRPGs made by indie developers already, I always felt they lacked the traditional ambitious "adventure" feel that made the games we loved what they are today. Chained Echoes comes as a pleasant surprise for me, a heartfelt and passionate ode to what loved and defined us and recreating the feeling that almost seems lost after a while.


One of the game's greatest strengths and one you'll notice immediately is the pacing of the whole adventure. The game starts off very strong and fast which is something you aren't really used to as JRPGs tend to have pretty slow starts as it is and this alone pulls you in pretty quick. It slows down a little in the middle and the pacing always varies if you decide to do side content in the game but the overall journey I would say is just bordering on excellent. It tries to have that ambitious narrative with a lot of threads and intrigue and for the most part succeeds barring a few things that are left unexplained unless you do the side content. The characters are good here too with interesting backstories that I actually felt for even though I kinda wish there was more content or even a side quest relating to each party member to flesh them out a bit more. One qualm I do have is with the game's writing though as it really really dry here and leaves very little to the imagination. I feel like a game's writing helps you able to imagine the characters talk when there is no external voice and dry writing makes you imagine them doing a very bad performance at least from my perspective. I know some people don't like the flowery writing a la FFT or Tactics Ogre but I always felt like it gave more emotion to what's going on and the ideas and concepts of Chained Echoes are done pretty well without being blatant about it.


I could talk about the battle system in this game for days if I could, I have a few minor annoyances with it but it's overall amazing and really challenging that makes you think about every move. There's a lot going on in a regular battle to keep track of and it almost feels like a tug of war with how one of the main mechanics work with the Overdrive Bar. Think of the Overdrive Bar as a momentum meter and something to keep you in check that rewards diverse play over boring strats as doing so will put you into a zone where you do more damage, take less damage and halves TP cost while being in the overheat zone makes you take a lot more damage and things can go really bad really quickly. Each character has their unique moveset and passives that let you build them however you want to an extent with the addition of class emblems that augment your stats and give you new actions a character would've never learned otherwise. Only having eight skill slots which is your bread and butter throughout the whole game is gonna feel really limiting but this also keeps in mind that you can also swap party members on the fly essentially having eight on the field at any given moment and the game rewards you for doing so too with a small reprieve of "cooling". With this said, there's no overleveling in Chained Echoes and there's little reliance on stat bloat as obtaining the resources for growth are mostly story based so you'll always be at a range of where the game wants you to be. The other form of fighting is fighting in these cool mechs called Sky Armors and I kind of wish they were more realized in how you can customize them. The moves you learn in them are completely up to the two weapons you equip with no way to mix and match which I would have loved considering after deciding the pair of weapons I wanted on each that I didn't bother with the others as much. I only got a little burnt out on the combat when some encounters were unavoidable despite having no random encounters and after I got the skills I already wanted on my characters that every fight almost played out the same barring bosses and every grimoire shard became less and less important but the boss fights do enough that I still have a strong positive impression of the gameplay.


It's not a JRPG without dungeons and a world map as you'll go to a lot of locations as well that are very varied in visual design and in traversal. From the cold vertical mountains to the horizontal archipelago, there's a lot to do and see outside of combat in terms of bolstering your strength. Finding recruits in the world giving you bonuses, side quests that reward you excellent rewards and even new party members, and a reward board that feels like a stamp card that rewards you for completing specific tasks in the world in a chain so to speak and it's also how you'll get most of your class emblems and extra grimoire shards when you need them which gives a much needed reward system to interact with the world a bit more other than the initial first time through. You eventually get the ability to fly over the zones instead of running which lets you explore even more areas so it's always a good idea to return after a while.


I will say the work done for the sprites are pretty good here and really shine with the bosses and enemies later on while being a colorful world just to look at in general. The soundtrack is something I didn't expect to be this good at all, it has some traditional orchestral tracks that feels at home with a game of this genre but it also has some tropical ass strings in my favorite area theme, an eerie and serene theme going through fields of flowers and ash. The battle themes are pretty great with my favorite one being the one where guitars are just shredding as you fight in literal space. Huge props to the composer for this soundtrack. The dude did not have to go this hard and I'm glad he did.


Funny how I always try to keep my reviews shorter but for JRPGs, it feels like word vomit and I can't ever seem to stem it but I love the genre so much and I can easily tell the people that made this game love it as much as I do. It goes without saying that if you're a fan of JRPGs that this is a huge recommendation and I hope it doesn't go overlooked by the popular masses because it doesn't have a Square Enix or Atlus logo on it. Keeping the genre of fighting literal gods alive. Video games are extremely difficult to make and especially solo endeavors but it makes it that much more special when you take years to craft something in hopes of shining bright to the ones that shaped you growing up. Congratulations to Matthias Linda because your title shines just as bright.

Looking in the mirror and accepting I ain't finishing this one.

A truly masterful one man effort. Over the course of nearly ten years of development time, Matthias Linda delivered a truly ambitious product. The game is filled with overwhelming levels of content. The first act takes up nearly 20 hours, at least including some sidequest work, with elaborate mechanical systems to dig into. Combat is always a challenging puzzle, understanding enemy weaknesses and how to build a party against the different kind of foes you may acquire. Unique monsters, blue-magic style enemy attack stealing, and elaborate mechanical depths to each character, all provide an incredible run-time of content.

Its just, I kinda think Matt needed another writer on this one. There's so much lore bloat, its kind of hard to keep track of what matters. The political conflict surrounding a magic nuke and how it shapes the world is interesting enough on its own. Once reincarnation, old gods, and immortal plots get involved, the entire story gets so unwieldy and difficult to follow. Its deeply inspired by Chrono Trigger and FF6, but those stories are ultimately straight-forward, with strong character work backing it up. Only a few characters of Chained Echoes rise above "okay" and its hard to push through when the things that made the lead hero interesting are swallowed up by the lore stuff. And once that lore stuff takes center stage, the other party members fade into the background, with little else to engage with. The things that made combat so challenging also becomes frustrating towards the end. The no level-up system certainly helps avoid too much grinding or so on, but it also means there's never a time where I feel powerful. Dying to enemies constantly. Stops being fun.

Its a gorgeous game, it really is, I just wish the final stretch kept up all the things I enjoyed for the previous 60 hours I dropped into it.

Here is a out-of-context spoiler I said out loud while playing Chained Echoes: "In hindsight, I should've guessed that they were gay."

Indie RPGs are incredibly fascinating to me. A genre famous/infamous for their length and complexity usually are more bite-sized in scale and scope when created by a few, maybe even one, passionate dev. Then you have other developers truly committed to creating full-scale RPGs reminiscent of the SNES/PS1 era of RPGs as a (mostly) solo project. The influence of Chrono Trigger is very apparent. From the opening shot being a direct callback to Crono awakening in his bedroom, to the little details like being able to walk even while talking to NPCs, encounters taking place on the same map while also not being random at all, and a end-game skill being a familiar looking spinning sword attack. The developer was very open about his other influences such as Xenogears, Suikoden 2, Final Fantasy VI, and the like.
What's critical though is that this isn't a game with constant references to other works around every corner, its very tasteful while having a identity wholly its own, like with its combat. You control four party members at once in a turn-based battle system, but you also have four reserved members paired up to another character of your choice. For a free action, you can swap a character with their partner. This comes with some obvious advantages with being able to have a ton of options available with up to eight distinct characters with their own unique skills and utility, yet there's also more subtle advantages such as with buffs. Characters buffed with a skill that is then swapped out will retain the buff indefinitely till their swapped back in, whereas normally the buff in under a turn limit. The same applies though to status ailments and debuffs, so you can't keep them out of battle safely as they would wear off naturally. Swapping also lowers the overdrive meter, the most integral part of the combat system.
Attacking and getting hit increase the overdrive meter, once it gets high enough the party will enter 'Overdrive Mode' where you'll deal more damage, take less damage, and every skill costs half as much MP (its called TP but its the same as Magic Points, or SP too...). Downside being is that if you continue to increase the overdrive meter too much then you'll Overheat, where all the benefits of Overdrive are gone plus you take massively increased damage. You will have to lower overdrive by defending, swapping characters, using a limit break called a Ultra Move, or using a specific type of skill that the game specifies. Sometimes it'll ask for magic skills, other times it'll be healing skills or maybe even a debuff. The text of a skill will also be in orange to let you know that if you use it it'll lower the Overdrive meter. Overdrive is all about balance, doing what you need to do while not getting overzealous with yourself. I do find it though that it can be really hard to comeback from mistakes sometimes. Remember that getting hit also increase Overdrive, so I've had times where I was perpetually stuck in Overheat as my characters kept getting one-shotted after being revived. Thankfully restarting a fight is very painless, even gives you a opportunity to readjust your party before jumping in. Point being is that it can be easy to take Overdrive for granted and have everything blowup in your face if you're careless.
Chained Echoes is unique for not having traditional experience points. You can only earn SP instead, which is used to upgrade combat and passive skills. Passive skills can be used to increase your stats, but only as long as they're equipped. Grimoire shards are how you are getting permanent stat ups, which also allow you to unlock all the character's skills. This system in theory makes Chained Echoes a very balanced RPG, as you are always roughly where your suppose to be at any point in the story in terms of power level. At most, there are optional bosses and side quests that reward more Grimoire shards, but it still sounds like you can't get too powerful, right?.... Nope. Just need to build your party just right and you can be like me who, by the endgame, was ignoring the superbosses mechanics and two-shotting them. They're preparing a party wipe attack in two turns? Why don't you prepare for this laser from my magic lizardman and cease to exist. It was kind of ridiculous how I beat the games hardest boss on my first try and didn't really get to see any of their strong attacks, but it did feel cool as Hell I won't lie.
Chained Echoes takes place in a world of magic and mechs, the best kind of world if you ask me. Its a story about the horrors of war, redemption of your past actions and what forgiveness means, and the sacrifices people will make for their ideals and beliefs. Whether they're likeable or not, nearly every character in this massive cast is given context and reasoning for who they are and why they do the things they do. Even some of the more quirky characters can experience some hard-to-stomach trauma. Even now I'm torn if this game justifies every awful event that happens. One of which that I can't spoil here but it felt a bit "Did that really need to happen?" Most of it does seem appropriate enough for a war story, "War is Hell" as everyone says. There are many sides to the overall conflict and I feel no side doesn't get enough time to showcase why they're here and what they fight for. Like the combat its mostly balance, and even with the occasional imbalance its nothing that's frustrating or unreasonable. Of course just like most RPGs there's much more to the world then just the war, and Chained Echoes is pretty solid on what is revealed and when. Its always fun when a revelation makes you look at previous events from a new perspective. They do "cheat" with one of the bigger twists of the story where they change the scene from what you saw previously and that felt a bit artificial, but I can let it slide since it leads to one of the more impactful scenes of the story.

While this isn't my favorite indie RPG, it is a shame that more aren't giving this the time of day I feel it deserves. A lot of passion and effort was put into this game, and it is well worth its asking price.
More games should have laser-shooting lizardmen

Não tem muito que se esperar de um "jogo feito por uma pessoa só que mexia com RPG Maker", mas esse jogo quebra todas as expectativas que são impostas sobre ele ao não fazer apenas um "copicola" dos jogos que referencia mas sim elaborar mecânicas e história originais apenas lembrando a "vibe" de jogos como Xenogears, Terranigma e Final Fantasy VI.
O combate é dinâmico e permite até 8 personagens na luta, ao mesmo tempo que você tem que controlar uma barra que avança ou retrocede conforme suas ações e os personagens que usa, acaba sendo uma camada extra de desafio a se atentar, e como o jogo não tem sistema de level e ao final das lutas seu HP/MP regenera, cada luta é sempre um desafio, diferentemente de outros JRPGs que te cansam pelo tamanho das dungeons e escassez dos itens, aqui cada combate pode ser fatal desde o início.
A progressão, por não ter níveis, consiste em desbloquear novas skills e dar upgrade em seus itens através da coleta de materiais que são achados em abundância conforme você anda, raramente você necessitará fazer um desvio e dedicar seu tempo apenas a coleta de materiais. Como bônus, tem também um sistema parecido com o License Board de Final Fantasy XII, mas onde cada slot é desbloqueado terminando desafios específicos, como explorar um mapa, matar um inimigo forte ou finalizar uma sidequest, desbloqueando slots adjacentes e aumentando suas recompensas, que são stats e itens.
A exploração é fluida e você pode acessar cada canto do mapa quase a qualquer hora do jogo graças aos pontos de teleporte espalhados ao mapa e que você só não pode fazer uso em momentos chave da história. Os mapas abertos e de dungeons são compactos o suficiente pra não serem enjoativos e abertos o suficiente para que não sejam corredores e estejam com diversas bifurcações que oferecem recompensas adicionais à você.
Mas o ponto altíssimo do jogo são seus personagens e sua história, tendo um ensemble cast onde todos do elenco principal tem seu momento de holofote, seu passado e sua personalidade bem desenvolvidos, embora tenhamos claros "protagonistas" no decorrer da história, quem os acompanha raramente passa como personagem secundário. Não apenas isso, mas o desenvolvimento da história apresenta diversas reviravoltas e surpresas, momentos dramáticos e engraçados, dilemas morais e diálogos excepcionalmente tocantes, tudo isso desenvolvido em cima de intrigas políticas complexas e inesperadas, envolvendo mais tarde até mesmo "Deuses" e inimigos de toda a humanidade, mas sem nunca descaracterizar a narrativa inicial do jogo. Uma grata surpresa e recomendadíssimo a todos os fãs de JRPGs e histórias de qualidade.

Old school turn based RPG, with tons to do, an adult themed story, great performance, and fun combat. I found myself thrilled to do the side missions though I wish the island had more depth to it.

My only complaints are the sky armor battles being mediocre compared to the party battles, and the graphics being a step down compared to the quality of the game.

9.5/10

I found it funny when I hear "recommended to JRPG fans"
For them it's a no-brainer. Duh.

But I've never gotten very far in any JRPG. Nowhere near the end. Tried. Couldn't.
Couldn't get through all those hurdles. Those brick walls. All those outdated barriers.
Even to inexperienced player of the genre, those are notorious.
None of them pose a problem here. Not in the slightest.

All puzzle pieces of this picture are just in their right places.
And they create a picture they were always meant to create.

It's rare for something to be so good that it transcends your preferences.
I thought I didn't like this genre...Apparently, I do.
I don't really enjoy those grand stories...Yet here I do.
Sometimes, there are things so extraordinary that they transcend the usual.

After finishing Chained Echoes I'm left with a memory of the world that gives home to so many interesting, complex and wonderful characters.

Got to know them. Lived there with them. Wouldn't trade them for anything.
When saying goodbye, I had a heavy feeling somewhere between my throat and heart.
I'll never forget them.

I genuinely think this is one of the best stories out there.
And personally, my favorite.

I'm not going to rate this simply because I did not put enough time into it to give it an honest rating. But I can say that unfortunately the Overdrive combat system is not clicking with me. I know it's an added strategic mechanic to the combat but I feel it's limiting how I want to play the game, and I'm just not feeling it.

I'm reminded of CrossCode, a game with high praise from players and critics. On paper, it should have been right up my alley. Beautiful pixel art, inspired by the JRPG classics I grew up with it. But I did not like the puzzles in it, at all, to the point where it dragged down my inspiration to see it through.

I like the art and environments of Chained Echoes. Story and characters seem okay so far, but I wouldn't say I'm attached to any of it. Time is precious and I'm going to move on to something else that I'd like to play (maybe I'll finish one of the 8 other games I'm currently playing).

I'm gonna shelve this indefinitely and maybe I'll revisit it someday...but it's unlikely.

It feels like this was made by fans of JRPGs for fans of JRPGs. The sprite work is fantastic, along with the combat, characters and story. With your party's HP and TP fully restored after every battle, you can constantly fight at your best. The only thing that annoyed me was every time you are separated and reunited with your party, which happens often, it forgets your party formation. This wouldn't be an issue, but there are a total of 12 playable characters to spread over eight slots, so these resets can be quite cumbersome. After a while, you'll get access to mechs you can use to battle with. These are fun to use, and especially great for reaching earlier inaccessible areas. However, when you are required to use them in a boss fight, it can be more of a struggle because you can't use your well-constructed party members.

Very solid modern interpretation of a classic JRPG.
Has a whole lot of QOL features, that are sorely missing in more modern releases, focuses on the best parts while removing all of the busywork. The battle system is genuinely pretty fun.
The story is pretty captivating, but at points it gets a tad too slow, especially in the middle. It kinda finishes on a high note, so ultimately I'd say it's good, but far from the greats.
The character writing is ehhhhh.
Beat it in about 42 hours with all of the extra content beaten.

The last time I saw such a small team take this huge a swing at a game was Hollow Knight.

Chained Echoes is a top down 2D turn-based RPG that is equal parts Chrono Trigger and Xenoblade Chronicles. It’s a 40 hour character driven JRPG with an extremely cool world that blends mechs with Game of Thrones.

It’s also extremely smart. It doesn’t waste your time and ensures you’re always engaged and in the action at all times. Its Overdrive mechanic is one of the coolest new video game things I’ve seen in a long time, and it includes so many QOL options it’ll make your head spin. Also the gameplay shift halfway (you get mechs) adds a ton of new traversal options and flips an already great game on its head.

Difficulty is good. Hard at first but if you’re doing side stuff it gets pretty easy to manage around the halfway point.

It is telling that I never do side stuff but I finished Chained Echoes having done most of its side content. I’m also writing this review at 3am because I stayed up late playing the game.

If I had to list any imperfections, I’d say that while the scenario and characters are quite strong, the writing at times can get a little sloppy. In part, I suspect, translation issues, and in part some clunky dialogue that at times conveys serious topics with the gentle touch of a sledgehammer. Still, I get the feeling this game’s heart is in the right place, and I have high hopes for improvements from a sequel.

Overall, Chained Echoes is a brilliant rethink of what it means to be a 2DJRPG in 2022. It’s smart and sleek, and has an enormous amount of high quality content that makes its price tag a steal at full price. A lil rough around a scant few edges, but man what a huge swing this game took.

Voy a intentar ser comedido, porque el mal humor que tengo ahora es intenso. El 90% del juego es una maravilla. No inventa nada, pero profundiza en tropos conocidos de forma adecuada y perfecciona mecánicas de su género. La historia es rica y diversa (a veces bebe de Mass Effect, otras de Code Geass, pero casi siempre de manera elegante) y tanto los personajes (un amor todos ellos) como el enfoque de la trama plantean unas temáticas e ideales muy interesante e incluso necesarios.

Y entonces llega la recta final. Y todo se va al garete gracias a una narrativa torpe e inexperta y por soluciones de guion que parecen hechas por otra persona diferente al resto del juego. La historia, a lo largo de 30 horas, cada vez abarcaba más y más, y en el último arco uno ya empieza a pensar que no va a poder cerrar correctamente todo lo que ha abierto. Pues bien, la mitad de los frentes... o directamente no los cierra o lo hace a medias. La otra mitad lo hace con ideas completamente antagónicas a las que, en teoría, el juego lleva defendiendo desde su primer minuto. Llega hasta a perderle el respeto a los personajes.
Me da igual que algo no me guste, pero me molesta sobremanera que algo me guste mucho y me lo arruinen. Una de mis alegrías del año durante 28 horas. Mi gran decepción durante 2.

Uma obra-prima dos RPG retrô modernos

Ok, eu nem sei se esse termo existe, mas por hora vamos fingir que sim. O que importa é que Chained Echoes me surpreendeu profundamente e é, pra mim, um dos grandes lançamentos do ano. É também um RPG obrigatório para os fãs do gênero.

Digno de um grande clássico da era de ouro dos RPG’s, Chained Echoes prova que o estilo está mais vivo do que nunca. Não devendo em nada para os lançamentos de grandes publishers, impressiona mais ainda o fato de o jogo ter sido feito quase que inteiramente por uma única pessoa.


A forma com que ele mescla o tradicional com o moderno é brilhante, sendo uma aula de game design e de como inovar em um gênero que já está há tanto tempo na indústria e que as vezes parece que não tem mais para onde evoluir.

O diretor Matthias Lindas não esconde suas inspirações, muito pelo contrário, espalha diversas referências de jogos clássicos em Chained Echoes, como você deve ter notado pelo nome de Glenn e Lenne, mas entrega um jogo que se sustenta por si só de forma incrível. Eu não posso deixar de recomendar esse jogo sempre que possível.

Review completo: https://gamelodge.com.br/critica-chained-echoes-e-brilhante-e-digno-da-era-de-ouro-dos-rpgs/